Where R&B Meets Cinéma Vérité: Rising Artist Trav Torch Crafts a Steamy Director's Cut of Modern Romance In "Sex Scene" There's something deliciously meta about recording a song about recording a scene about sex. It's the kind of recursive romance that could easily spiral into self-parody, like pointing two mirrors at each other and watching infinity fragment into meaninglessness. But Trav Torch, with his latest single...

Take Jack Horton, a Portland-based singer-songwriter whose path to folk-Americana included stops at Japanese law school, Tokyo piano bars, corporate boardrooms, and government offices. His latest EP, "Imperfections," feels like finding someone's private journal set to music. And that someone happens to write really, really well. The five-song collection opens with "Set Me Free," a piano-driven confession that might surprise anyone expecting typical breakup bitterness. Horton...